The late Dwayne McDuffie postulated in 2002 that the only television that has ever existed was the last five minutes of the TV show, St.Elsewhere and that everything else is a daydream. McDuffie also stated that if he could make the link from Knight Rider to Star Trek, he could take out the entire Star Trek franchise. Actually, he didn’t have to do that because the truth is that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did the job for him.
On February 11, 1998, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine aired what turned out to be perhaps the best 
episode of the entire series run. The episode, Far Beyond the Stars, takes on the subject of racism and addresses it bluntly and directly. And, in doing so, inadvertently opens the door to the destruction of the whole Star Trek universe.
The story Far Beyond the Stars, written by Ira Steven Behr and Han Beimler based on a story by Marc Scott Zicree, is a simple, but powerful one for the Star Trek franchise. Captain Benjamin Sisko, Commander of Federation Space Station Deep Space Nine, is feeling demoralized upon hearing of the death of an old friend and is thinking of resigning. To quote from Memory Alpha – “Knowing he had much work left on Bajor, the Prophets sent him another series of pagh’tem’far, in which he was shown the life of Benny Russell, a black writer on Earth in the 20th century. The racial intolerance and trials endured by Russell allowed Sisko to reevaluate his problems, and he decided to stay on the station.”
Thus, the story of writer Benjamin Russell was a parable for Captain Benjamin Sisko to persevere. Sisko does persevere and by the end of the series turns into a god (but that’s an article for another day). But what of Benny Russell? Was he just part of Sisko’s dream or was he the Dreamer and Sisko was part of his imagination? Well, if Benny Russell is the dreamer, his dream is the entire Star Trek franchise.
In Far Beyond the Stars, Benny is a writer for a science fiction magazine entitled, Incredible Tales, in 1953 New York City. He agrees to write a story for next month’s issue after being given a drawing of what looks like Deep Space 9 (to us) by the magazine’s illustrator. Benny writes the story of a Black star fleet captain in charge of the space station. The magazine refuses to publish the tale because it is unbelievable since it features a Negro as the hero. Nevertheless, Benny proceeds to write six more stories about the space station and its Black captain. The magazine publisher refuses to print any of the stories and fires Benny, resulting in Benny having a nervous breakdown, sobbing that the ideas in his head can’t be destroyed 
because he has created a future and it is real. Benny is taken away in an ambulance.
The next time we see Benny Russell, he is in the Psychiatric Ward of a hospital in the DS:9 episode, Shadows and Symbols. He is writing on the wall because they won’t give him paper. What is he writing? He is writing out the episode summaries from every episode of Deep Space 9 prior to Shadows and Symbols (see production notes). In fact, Benny Russell has put on the wall for all to see, the entire universe of Deep Space Nine and its crew.
Now, here is where it gets interesting. Since Deep Space Nine exists in Benny’s head, so does Captain Picard since he was the one who convinced then Commander Sisko to take the job on the space station. Since Picard is in Benny’s head, so are Doctor Leonard McCoy, Mr. Spock and Commander Scott since they all visited the Enterprise under Picard’s watch. By extension, Captain Kirk, the Romulans and the Klingons are also Benny’s invention. This includes Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of Warp Drive, who first appeared in the original Star Trek episode, Metamorphosis. With Cochrane in Benny’s head, Captain Archer and his crew from Enterprise are also there. In short, the story of Benny Russell wipes out the entire Star Trek universe (or at least establishes it as a work of fiction of a 20th century writer).
Some will argue that Benny Russell is simply a vision sent to Captain Sisko to get him to do or act as the Prophets or the Pah-wraiths desire. I’d buy that except that at the end of “Far Beyond the Stars,” Sisko wonders if he is really in the “real world” or just part of Benny’s vision of a utopian time. It is Sisko, not Benny, who is riding in the ambulance when he is told by the preacher that he is the dreamer and the dream. It is Sisko who says to his father, “What if all of this is the illusion? Maybe Benny isn’t the dream, we are. Maybe we are just figments of his imagination. For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere far beyond all those distant stars, Benny Russell is dreaming of us,” as he stares into space and sees Benny Russell. And Benny Russell is staring back, maybe, just maybe, contemplating his creations and their story universe.
Deep Space 9 is available for streaming on Netflix.